Miss Montana and autism

One of this year’s contestants in the Miss America contest has autism.

Alexis Wineman was diagnosed with Autism at age 11 and she has made one very clear point in all her interviews: she doesn’t want to be defined by autism.

At Wildwood we strive very hard to not define people by any diagnosis or characteristic. You’ll notice in all our publications and in all our writing we use the disability last when we describe someone. It is a little thing but saying a “disabled person” means something different than a “person with a disability.”

We put the disability last where it belongs.

Alexis Wineman said this about her involvement in the pageant,

“I will be successful if just one person encounters a child who is overstimulated without staring, if one teenager invites an “outcast” to lunch or just smiles at him or her, or if one employer gives a job to someone who might not be able to look the interviewer in the eye.”